The Pop Warner football league has introduced rules to make playing the game safer for kids.

The Pop Warner football league has introduced rules to make playing the game safer for kids.

Photo: Karen Warren

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You Docs: Part-time diets yield big-time results

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It's a dieter's dream: You don't have to restrict calories or carbs every day to see results. Slash 'em just a few days a week and you'll lose weight and keep it off. Fantasy? No, it's reality. Part-time weight-loss plans deliver real-world results. The latest, headline-grabbing news even says this easy-breezy pounds-off strategy could lower risk for breast cancer.

Here's what you need to know:

Part-time diets take time. Don't expect to lose 5 pounds in a week, but that's a good thing. Slow, steady weight loss is more likely to be permanent. A healthy diet-two-days-a-week plan that cuts out extra carbs (like the added sugars, syrups and refined grains that don't do your body any favors) could help you lose a little more weight over four to six months (about a pound a week) than following a low-calorie diet for the same length of time.

Part-time diets work if you're trustworthy. One of the best-studied of the part-time diets cuts carbohydrates to 40 grams a day, two days a week, and lets dieters choose the healthy foods they love best the other five days a week. That's not a license to order the triple cheeseburger and biggie fries. It's an opportunity to practice lifelong healthy eating habits during your diet.

Part-time diets keep hunger in check. Reining in carbohydrates helps keep your blood sugar on a more even keel, getting past the roller-coaster spikes and dips that lead to between-meal cravings.

Part-time diets pack a health bonus. Done right, this way of eating may reduce your odds for diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer. Slashing carbohydrates two days a week makes your muscle cells become more sensitive to insulin, the "traffic cop" that tells cells to open up and let in the sugar from your bloodstream.

On eat-what-you-want days, don't overdo it. One challenge with two-day or alternate-day diets is that the off-day eating could keep your stomach stretched and ready for the next big meal. It takes about six weeks of consistently small, diet-size meals until your stomach and brain feel full with less food. And that's a great place to be, because it means smaller meals will keep you feeling happy when the diet's done and you're maintaining your new physique. One solution: Eat four to six times day; frequent, small servings will keep you satisfied and help reduce your appetite.

Try an even simpler approach: Eat only between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (or any eight-hour period). Limiting the hours when your kitchen's open could automatically help you eat 28 percent less food, an easy way to lose pounds without counting every little calorie.

The power of a nap

In a world where 34 percent of employees work 41 to 60 hours a week, spend up to 80 hours a month commuting and the average working parent sees his or her family for only about 1.2 hours a day, chances are you're feeling a bit weary by midafternoon. The best way to reclaim your workday energy might be the 10-minute nap, either at your desk, at the gym or in your car in the parking lot.

Q: My 12-year-old son wants to play football very badly, and for a long time I was dead set against it because of possible head injury. Now all his friends at school are getting into football, and I hear that they are making rules changes to avoid head injuries. Is it safe yet?

A: There's no doctor in North America who'd say football is risk-free, but we have to weigh the risks and rewards. Most football head injuries happen in practice from smaller, more repetitive hits. And it's why the medical advisers at Pop Warner (the largest youth football organization in the U.S. with more than 425,000 kids) introduced a rule to limit contact drills to a third of practice time. They're also banning full-speed contact drills between players more than 3 yards apart. These new rules are a step in the right direction and will help change football's head-banging culture from the bottom up. But you need to actively work with the coaches to make sure they limit contact drills and use the best and latest protective equipment. (There's a mouthguard called the Jaw-Joint Protector that provides extra protection against concussions.)

And be sure that after age 5, you give kids 200 milligrams a day of DHA omega-3. DHA is the key fat that builds and repairs brain tissue.